makepeace

plural makepeaces · alternative make-peace

1. rareA peacemaker; one who reconciles persons at variance with one another; a composer of strife; an adjuster of differences.

   To be a make-peace shall become my age / Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage.

   c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, act 1, scene 1

2. obsoleteA stick, rod or bundle of twigs made from birch wood, used for corporal punishment.

   1 more example

   The civill uſes whereunto the Birch-tree ſerveth are many, as for the puniſhment of Children both at home and at School, for it hath an admirable influence upon them, to quiet them when they are out of Order, and therefore ſome call it Make-peace: The old Roman Magiſirates had it born in bundles before them, as an Enſigne, and Inſtrument of Juſtice to be executed upon petty Offenders.

   1657, William Coles, chapter CCCXX, in Adam in Eden: Or, Natures Paradiſe, page 594

   Synonyms: birch, switch

1. A surname transferred from the nickname.
2. rareA male given name transferred from the surname.